Thursday, June 10, 2010

We haven't done one of these in awhile so here is the latest installment of This Day in Music History. It seems hard to believe with the ease that Olivia Newton-John played the part of Sandy in the movie Grease that she was really very nervous. But it is understandable. It was, after all, her first big Hollywood film. However, it was not her first film. She had previously starred in a science fiction movie called Toomorrow that bombed. She talked with the scriptwriter and John Travolta and accepted the part. Still she was so nervous that she herself insisted on doing a screentest. Around that time Mr. Travolta also was recording some songs and had a top 40 hit with one titled Let Her In. In an interview Olivia said she thought it was odd that she was a singer who wanted to be an actress and now she was in a movie with an actor who wanted to be a singer. She also said she wasn't thrilled with her own preformance. She thought it was sickly. With how well the movie did it is safe to say that the audience didn't agree with her.The movie also changed how music fans saw her. Up till then record buyers only thought of her as a country singer. She did have two number one songs before but they were still country songs. Now she was on the big screen singing pop broadway tunes. The movie and the soundtrack dominated the summer of 1978. It was even bigger in England. You're the One That I Want was #1 there for nine weeks and the follow up, Summer Nights, was #1 there for seven weeks. But in America on this day in music history the song You're the One That I Want stated its one week rule of the Billboard chart on June 10, 1978.Also the above photo is from a picture sleeve of the 45 that was released in Japan.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Whoever proof read the book "Elementary My Dear Groucho" must not have gotten past elementary school. I bought the book not long ago at a used book store. I knew I would like it as I always like books by Ron Goulart. But I noticed some spelling errors but I could live with that. Then in chapter 26 a page is missing. Not torn out. It wasn't published in my book. Still I pressed on. Only to find that chapters 27 through 30 were missing also. Instead chapters 4 through 7 were re-published to take their place. I still want to see how it ends but not with missing chapters. So for now I have stopped reading the book. I don't fault Mr. Goulart. I fault Thomas Dunne Books St. Martin's Press.